Lundqvist had some amazing saves, but the game wasn't as dominant in the Senators favor as some of the stats would seem to indicate. I certainly wouldn't term this Lundqvist standing on his head.

Those stats were cooked. After first period I was counting 3 in first 5 min and officials had only one. I stopped after that, they were biased towards Sens. I am fine with that, they have shots we have a win.

The most beautiful thing about this team is that there are no flashy superstars or shiny highlight reels. It's the consummate team effort where we bang, grind, and fight through every single win like it's an elimination game. That's the true beauty of this team and that's the reason why no one has us as favorites to win the Cup this year and many had us as an upset special against the Sens.

When you follow this team, you feel like you are watching each chapter of an unbelievable story unfold. The team loves each other, has awesome teammate/lockerroom chemistry, and would run through walls for each other and their coach. They have all the intangible qualities that make them a winning team in the ultimate team sport while they lack all the tangible qualities that would make them a popular playoff prediction pick. I feel like I'm rooting for the most underrated #1 seed of all time and I love it.

Yeah, no kidding. About 90% of your PGT posts include people complaining how Spezza is playing. I think only a few people mentioned our defense. Ryan McDonagh is simply amazing, and has been shutting people down the entire year.

EDIT: and reading the Ottawa board, they seem to think they played a lot better the majority of the game and they are looking like the 1 seed. I just don't see it.

We can lose this series but if we win this series by winning two more games exactly like they did tonight, I won't give two ***** if the Senators looked like -100 seed. Enough top seeded team lose in the first round. You don't have to look too far either. Vancouver the Presidents' trophy winner is down 3-0 to the Kings and will probably lose their series. Last year the Presidents' trophy winning Canucks who made it to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, looked like **** after they took a 3-0 series lead against the Hawks and had to beat the Hawks in OT. The Bruins went down 2-0 at home and had to beat the Habs in OT in game 7 and oh btw won the cup.

Most Sens fans are flipping their **** about how poorly Spezza is playing but what they don't seem to get is that he has to go against McDonagh and Girardi basically every shift. I knew these 2 were good, but WOW!!!!!!!!!! Especially McD. The kid made a huge fan outa me tonight! What they've done against Spezza and Michalek is masterful.

I said before the series it would come down to the foot soldiers and Brian Boyle is looking like a boss right now.

The most beautiful thing about this team is that there are no flashy superstars or shiny highlight reels. It's the consummate team effort where we bang, grind, and fight through every single win like it's an elimination game. That's the true beauty of this team and that's the reason why no one has us as favorites to win the Cup this year and many had us as an upset special against the Sens.

When you follow this team, you feel like you are watching each chapter of an unbelievable story unfold. The team loves each other, has awesome teammate/lockerroom chemistry, and would run through walls for each other and their coach. They have all the intangible qualities that make them a winning team in the ultimate team sport while they lack all the tangible qualities that would make them a popular playoff prediction pick. I feel like I'm rooting for the most underrated #1 seed of all time and I love it.

Honestly I think its one of the most frustrating things about this team. We have a TON of character and they are not a hard team to root for.

But the hard hats will only take us so far. Eventually you need consistent skill and offensive cohesion team wide. Just like you can't have a team of just super stars, you can't be overwhelmed with character/role player guys. Its gotta be a balance. I don't think they have quite found it yet.

LOL according to the CBC announcers, it was a "fluky bounce off the back of the net" which ended up on Boyle's stick.

Yea, it's not like Girardi purposely shot it off the boards or anything...

They're both right. The bounce off the net was a bit of a fluke, but as Boyle mentioned in the post-game interview, the goal was a total team effort. It started with Dubinsky hustling to get the puck in the zone. Callahan's board work behind the net won possession and got the puck out to Girardi. Girardi's awareness and heads up play led to the bank-pass. The puck took a fortunate richochet off the net, and found Boyle, who was right where he was supposed to be to take advantage of those kinds of things.

So yeah--the puck took a fortunate bounce, but the only reason the puck was in a position to make that bounce, and the only reason a goal was scored off of that bounce, is that four players ALL did their jobs #therightway.

Guarantee that won't happen. Carkner is going to be played next game. They will try to recreate what they did in game 2 and throw the Rangers off their game.

I honestly don't know if he will.

Carks doesn't play much and this game didn't give us any reason to play Carks. Gilroy sucks, but at least he doesn't handle the puck like a live grenade. If this game got nasty, I'd say Carks would play. But my gut feeling is Gilroy is going to play again because we need goals and Carkner isn't gonna provide that. We have enough guys who can fight if need be.

Carks doesn't play much and this game didn't give us any reason to play Carks. Gilroy sucks, but at least he doesn't handle the puck like a live grenade. If this game got nasty, I'd say Carks would play. But my gut feeling is Gilroy is going to play again because we need goals and Carkner isn't gonna provide that. We have enough guys who can fight if need be.

Why do people not think that the NHL warned both teams to stop the crap (even though it was Ottawa that brought that crap in game 2).

You think it is just an accident that tonight's game was clean?

I think both teams were ready to get dirty, but neither team wanted to be the one to start it. Shanaban is watching closely now and no one wants to be out for any games. I think the shenanigans are over for the most part in this series. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few more fights, but I don't think we'll see another Carkner or Hagelin situation.

I think both teams were ready to get dirty, but neither team wanted to be the one to start it. Shanaban is watching closely now and no one wants to be out for any games. I think the shenanigans are over for the most part in this series. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few more fights, but I don't think we'll see another Carkner or Hagelin situation.

I think both teams were ready to get dirty, but neither team wanted to be the one to start it. Shanaban is watching closely now and no one wants to be out for any games. I think the shenanigans are over for the most part in this series. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few more fights, but I don't think we'll see another Carkner or Hagelin situation.

I said the same thing here a couple of days ago, though nobody here acknowledged my prescience and high-fived me on my forethought.
Maybe because I am Canadian?

I'm not entirely sure what certain people expect. The parity in the league is so great right now that there are no easy matchups.

We were outplayed for parts of the game and outplayed our opponent for a little bit less of the game. Sounds exactly like playoff hockey on the road. Their building was rocking and home ice allowed them to get their matchups and take advantage of our weaker faceoff men. This is exactly the kind of game this team is built for.

In no way did I think this team played a bad game tonight. Opponent playing us well? Yes. Bad game? No. I swear some people think that if we don't dominate the game offensively for 50 minutes, we played a bad game. We dominated the game offensively for 15 minutes and defensively for 60 minutes. During that 15 is when we scored our goal. Yes, the Senators got some chances. You aren't smothering the life out of opponents on the road in the playoffs. Spezza, Michalek, Karlsson got shut down tonight and we are more than capable of handling what their secondary players are throwing at us.

We found a way to win. It's really like certain people didn't watch us at all this year.

/rant.

Well said, my friend. Very well said.

I also think we're going to be a much better team in game 2. Our confidence was shaken a bit with the OT loss on Saturday night. We took it back tonight in a big way with the shutout. Our defense was great and for the most part, our neutral zone decisiveness was very good. We can still be much better, and I think we'll see our best game so far in game 4.

Henke is back on top of his game and Kreider has his first game jitters out of the way.

Can't wait. Let's go back to MSG with a chance to go to the second round!